"How many animals are doing that or birds?" Stone asked. "I don't want to second-guess the city, but I can't think of anything chemically that would have me be concerned."

Dr. Gary Oxman, a Multnomah County health officer, also told The Oregonian: "The health risk associated with that is really, really tiny."

A healthy bladder holds up to 16 ounces of urine, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Water bureau administrator David Shaff told KATU it's not about the science.

"There are people who will say it‚Äôs an overreaction,‚ÄĚ he said. ‚ÄúI don‚Äôt think so. I think just dealing with the ‚Äėyuck factor,‚Äô I can imagine how many people would be saying, ‚ÄėI made orange juice with that water this morning. That‚Äôs not what I want to hear.‚Äô ‚ÄĚ

soundoff(748 Responses)

Brian

Are they going to do this EVERY TIME someone pees in the water? You know people are going to start doing it again and again out of spite, revenge, for a laugh, to prove a point, etc. A gross overreaction, and money that could feed a lot of people. Tsk. Tsk.

Another reason every kid should have to take chemistry in high school. Pure stupidity and another waste of money. And for the idiot who mentioned AIDS, do your homework, the AIDS virus will only live at body temperature in a protected environment.

If you were really a scientist then you wouldn't say viruses can live in any environment. Viruses are not living things, they are merely genetic material wrapped by a protein coat. They don't respirate, defecate, or have any form of locomotion. When we speak of "killing" viruses this really refers to destroying their protein coats.

I think most of the people commenting are forgetting the fact that it wasn't drained for health reasons it was for the "yuck factor". Yes a very stupid decision but it was purely for the piece of mind of people drinking the water. It's the same concept that if you order a hamburger and somebody spits on it. You probably won't taste a difference and it won't hurt you but if the person that made that hamburger told you they spit on it you would freak out. If anything this situation should have been kept quiet.

1. Piece of mind = "I'm gonna give you a piece of my mind." Peace of mind = just to make myself feel better.
2. Spitting your bacteria and germs directly on people or in their food is a felony. Peeing sterile urine into a pool is not. This is a shameful, inexcusable waste of money, and there is absolutely no logical reason for it.

Of course this is ridiculous. It's like drinking sweat, but diluted a billion times. It's a total waste of water. Although I do understand the "yuk" factor, much more pollution just floats down out of the air.

But listen people, THIS is what concerns me: the easy access. Ok this idiot pees into the reservoir – no big deal. But if he could get that close, what's to stop a really BAD GUY from putting poison, deadly bacteria, radioactive materal from a disposed hospital radiotherapy machine...whatever – right into the water supply??? THAT's the real worry....the potential damage. How do we fence these things off??

Our water authority makes extra cash off granting access to area residents to hike, bike, or fish at the reservoir. I'm sure it's not the only agency in the country to do this. It actually helps ease security having people around that care about it. But, now think aboout this, the water in that reservoir is actually drained into it from the surround acres of wetlands. Any idea how many animals pee and poop all around it? Let's all grow up now, 'k?

That urine would have been so diluted it would have been harmless after the chlorine was added. People all over are developing massive psychological problems, and that is what we are talking about here. Whether they are throwing away perfectly good water or spraying neurologically damaging chemicals to kill annoying but harmless bugs. What a waste, especially when you have mothers in Africa giving their infants water out of a dirty puddle and there are places in the U.S. as well in dire need of water. Just shameful.

I hope they're taking the bill out of the administrator's paycheck. He should see a psychologist about his "yuck factor" problem. Are they going to drain it every time a bird poops in it or dies in it? Every time it rains and dirt gets washed into it? Sounds to me like the water department doesn't have a handle on how to properly treat water, and they're hoping that the community won't notice the underlying problems if they overreact to this "yucky" but unimportant incident.

A deer bladder is the same size as a human's... if a deer had been caught on camera instead of a man, would they still drain it? How about some common sense (and maybe a little bleach for good measure)?!?!

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